Category: Phrases

Joining the Taste of Korea posted a challenge on how well I know Korean food. I know there are a lot more food to taste and learn. The number of 반찬 (banchan) alone is too many to learn in one cooking session.

In Korean you say 배고파요 (paegopayo) or 배고파 (paegopa) when you want to eat or when you are hungry. The first one is polite way to say it while the next one is the casual way. You will also hear 배고프다 (paegopeuda) when someone declares that he/she is hungry.

I am always amazed by the number of food served in a typical Korean meal. The 반찬 or side dishes are way too much. Just before you know it you are full picking on these banchan even before the main dish is served.

My good friend Suhyeon treated us to a Korean dinner in one of the restaurants in Sinchon last April. The picture above shows the side dishes served. There were around 7 반찬 served. The 동그랑땡 (donggeurangddaeng – mini beef patties) in stone warmer and the 파전 (pancheon- Korean onion pancakes) were the best.

I specially request for 순두부 찌개 (sundubu jjigae – spicy soft tofu stew) since this is my favorite. Then another set of side dish were served although some of which are treated as seasoning or spice, I am surprised that another set of 반찬 was served along with the soup. Instead of the usual plain white rice what went along with the food we had is the 오곡밥 (ogokbap).

Ogokbap is actually sticky rice. It is made of five grains namely glutinous rice, millet, sorghum, black beans, and red beans. I heard that this is usually eaten by Korean families during first full moon day in hopes of peace and a good harvest.

At this point, 제가 배고파요… I am getting hungry looking at the Korean food I got to taste in the past. What I wanted to have right now is the 김치볶음밥 (kimchibokkeumbap – kimchi fried rice). To say I want to eat kimchibokkeumbap in Korean, this pattern can be used <food>을/를 먹을 거에요. 김치볶음밥을 먹을 거에요 (Kimchibokkeumbapeul mokeul koeyo – I want to eat kimchibokkeumbap). Depending on what letter or sound the food name ends you can simply attach 을 -eul for consonant ending food name and 를 -reul for vowel.

I got to taste this kimchibokkeumbap from Yoogane in Myeongdong last April. It was one of the best Korean fried rice I ever had. I got mine mixed with chicken and it was a super complete meal on its own. The pan above it humongous, I can’t imagine I would be able will finish it ~ but I did LOL!

I have never into spicy food until I became hook with Korea. Maybe it was a natural thing, me liking the country and the culture led me to liking the food as well. Honestly it is not that I like every Korean food I had before but I get to appreciate the taste itself and I slowly grew fond of spicy dishes. How about you? What is your favorite Korean food?

I tried to make friends to several Koreans. Few years ago, you have to look for a Language Exchange site to get connected to people from other countries. These sites were specifically made to learn a second language from a native speaker member. It was not exactly easy and free. To be able to be ‘searchable’ and ‘to search’ for someone, premium membership is required. However, these days, with the number of social network sites and App for messaging, the world of language exchange is very accessible. I met a lot of people who shares the same interest as I do from Facebook and even at LinkedIn.

Chatting via messaging application like Kakaotalk allows me to practice Korean. Up until now it’s a challenge to respond as quickly and natural as I can. Sometimes I have to request my language exchange partner to say it in English. This is why i learned how to request my Korean friend to say something in English:

영어로 말 해주세요 (Yeongeoro mal haejuseyo). To break the sentence down:

영어로 (Yeongeoro) – Yeongeo is English and the -ro suffix means ‘in’ thus, making the word mean ‘in English’

말 (mal) – say

해주세요 (haejuseyo) – please do it

I know it sounds a bit weird to have the ending as please do it but that is just the direct translation. It is like ‘say in English, please do it’ literally but of course it actually means ‘Please say it in English’.

So if you want to request someone to say (what he just said in another language) in Korean just replace Yeongeo with Hangugeo. 한국어로 말 해주세요 (Hangugeoro mal haejuseyo) – Please say it in Korean.

I have always been wondering how to say ‘Someone said..’ in Korean. In a usual conversation it is common to quote a person for saying something. I have not read about this lesson yet so I asked my language exchange partner (LEP) how to say it in Korean.

There are two ways to say this according to my LEP:

말했는데 – malhaenunde (formal)

그러던데 – geureodeonde (informal)

The pattern is subject + 말했는데 or 그러던데+ the thing or event that has been said. This post is triggered by someone saying that Jinhae (a place in Korea) is a very beautiful place to visit during spring because of cherry blossoms. Then i asked my self how do I say that in Korean?

My friend said the place is really beautiful –> 내 친구 말했는데 거기 정말 아름다운 곳이래. The sentence can be broken down as follows:

When you did something wrong the expressions 미안해요 (mianhaeyo) and 죄송해요 (chwesonghaeyo) come in handy to say sorry. When you want to admit you did something wrong or if you want to acknowledge that something unfortunate happened and it was your fault the expression would be 잘 못 했어요 (jal mot haesseoyo). This means I was wrong or sorry it was my fault.

This expression is very common and you can almost always hear it on dramas. It is normally said the casual way, 잘 못 했어 (jal mot haesseo). Literally it means ‘I am not good’.

I am not pausing on the powerful post modifier -(으)ㄴ. I say it’s powerful because you can do complex sentences with it. My post today is actually still related to this modifier. There is another expression I learned that connotes has ever done or has never done.

The nouns 일 (il) and 적 (jeok) both mean event, act, experience. When used in along with verb 있어요 (isseoyo) and 없어요 (opseoyo) would mean:

일이 있어요 (iri isseoyo) – the event, experience or act exists

적이 있어요 (jeoki isseoyo) – the event, experience or act exists

일이 없어요 (iri opseoyo) – the event, experience or act don’t exists

적이 없어요 (jeoki opseoyo) – the event, experience or act don’t exists

This phrase is compatible and in almost all cases used with exploratory pattern (verb) -어 본. Previously, I made a post on using the verb 보다 with another verb to mean try to do something. So the complete pattern would be verb+본 일이 있어요 or verb+본 적이 없어요. Of course 일 is interchangeable with 적.

태국에 가 본 일이 있어요? (Taeguke ka bon iri isseoyo?) It literally means Does having gone to Thailand exists? but it actually means ‘Have you ever been to Thailand? ‘

태국에 가 본 적이 없어요 (Taeguke ka bun jeoki opseoyo) I have never been to Thailand.

When I was learning Korean during my first few weeks, i spent time to memorize Korean characters (Hangul) and the first thing I did was to try write my name in Hangul. Now I have a question: 이름을 한글로 써 본 일이 있어요?

There are a handful of practical uses of verb in conditional form. One of which is in combination with 좋겠어요 (-chokesseoyo). I have learned that 좋다 (choda) can either mean to like or is good. However, when it is used with verb in conditional form and the future form of 좋다 which is 좋겠어 (chokesseo) it then corresponds to English sentence expressing hope or wish.

To simplify, first sentence clause ending in (으)면 plus final verb 좋겠어요 (chokesseyo) or 좋겠습니다 (chokessumnida) creates the expression ‘It would be good if….’ or ‘I hope or … ‘

We know that in English to say something like ‘It would be good if we have a wine’ is an expression that expresses wish to have wine. Here are examples of verb in conditional form used side by side 좋겠어요.

여름이 가지 않으면 좋겠어요. (Yeoreumi kagi aneumyeon chokesseoyo) – Literally this means, if summer did not go, it would be good. [= If summer did not go it would be good.]